Reviewing several dispatches from the past couple of days, the latest news out of Egypt is that Egyptian “President” Mohammed Morsi “is not backing down in the showdown over decrees granting him near-absolute powers,” that “clashes between the two camps (Morsi’s Islamist supporters and secular opponents) … left two dead and hundreds injured,” and that the country’s Muslim Brotherhood-dominated assembly “pushed through the 234-article draft (constitution) in just 21 hours from Thursday into Friday … (after) Coptic Christians and liberals earlier had walked out.”

The draft constitution includes several articles “that rights activists, liberals and Christians fear will lead to restrictions on the rights of women and minorities,” and omits “bans on slavery or promises to adhere to international rights treaties.” Oh, and I almost forgot: “The Obama administration is declining to criticize Egypt’s draft constitution.” It’s worth identifying at this point several (but by no means all; the following is surely a very small sample) of those who in 2011 reassured the world that Egyptians had nothing to fear if the Brotherhood and Islamists became dominant.

The annual winter conference of the Democracy Alliance is getting almost no press attention. The alliance “was created to build progressive infrastructure,” and promotes a “collaborative giving strategy.” Membership is invitation-only. Its board includes Mary Kay Henry, who “serves as International President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).” The meeting is in essence a planning session for the funding of “progressive” candidates, their supposedly unrelated Super-PACs, and other causes.

This morning, Matthew Continetti at the Washington Free Beacon called out the press hypocrisy in virtually ignoring this event. A 10 a.m. ET Google News search on “Democracy Alliance” (in quotes) returned only a half-dozen post-Thanksgiving items. Among major outlets, only the Politico, as seen at NJ.com (written by Kenneth Vogel, but not noted there), has given the meeting any attention. Continetti noted that coverage, and the complete lack of any other attention which accompanied it (HT Instapundit; bolds are mine):

A federal appeals court on Nov. 28 granted a Catholic business owner in Missouri an injunction against the Department of Health and Human Services mandate that he says violates his religious freedom by forcing him to provide insurance coverage for morally objectionable drugs and procedures.

“The order sends a message that the religious beliefs of employers must be respected by the government,” said Francis Manion, Senior Counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice.

The center is representing Frank O’Brien and his St. Louis-based business O’Brien Industrial Holdings, LLC, which operates many businesses in ceramic materials exploration, mining and processing.

“We have argued from the beginning that employers like Frank O’Brien must be able to operate their business in a manner consistent with their moral values, not the values of the government,” Manion said Nov. 28. “We look forward to this case moving forward and securing the constitutional rights of our client.”

The HHS mandate requires that most businesses with 50 or more employees provide the coverage as “preventive care” for women. Violators face fines of $100 per employee per day.

The injunction from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit blocks the implementation of the mandate for O’Brien’s business. In October, a federal district judge had dismissed the lawsuit.

O’Brien’s 87-employee business was the first private business to challenge the mandate.

The company’s website states that its mission is “to make our labor a pleasing offering to the Lord while enriching our families and society.” Its values statement stresses integrity in conduct “guided by the Golden Rule and the Ten Commandments” while also pledging not to discriminate based on anyone’s beliefs.

O’Brien has created several programs to help employees purchase homes, fund their children’s college education and save for retirement.

The federal mandate’s present religious exemption applies only to non-profit organizations that primarily serve and employ people of the same religion and have the inculcation of religious values as their primary purpose. The exemption is so narrow that it may not apply to Catholic non-profit employers like colleges, health care systems and charities.

The Obama administration proposed a broader exemption in February, but its details are still unclear. President Obama’s re-election campaign attacked the Republican candidate Mitt Romney for supporting federal legislation that would secure a broader exemption.

Over 40 lawsuits have been filed against the HHS mandate, representing over 110 plaintiffs. Plaintiffs include Catholic dioceses, the University of Notre Dame and the EWTN Global Catholic Network as well as Protestant organizations like the Virginia-based Liberty University and the Bible publisher Tyndale House Publishers.

They say the mandate violates their religious freedom protected by the U.S. Constitution and federal law and forces them to provide coverage for drugs and procedures to which they have religious and moral objections. …

z Pol-Party-Lobby Sites z

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